The general sense of optimism was obvious, with 75 percent of the responding firms saying they expect to hire more people in 2018. But they also voiced some concerns: It's gotten hard to hire qualified people, many say. And while the Trump administration has been business-friendly so far, builders are still waiting to see whether it'll deliver on the president's promised wave of infrastructure spending.

One key question asked firms to compare their 2018 hopes to their 2017 experience in "the available dollar volume of projects you compete for in 2018." This was broken down into more than a dozen separate categories, such as higher education, manufacturing, highway, transportation and multifamily residential.

On the national level, there was optimism across the board. On the whole, the number of those who expected more money on the table overwhelmingly outnumbered those who expected less. That held true of every individual category. For all categories combined, 53 percent said they expected more dollars to be up for grabs, 37 percent expected about the same, and only 9 percent expected a leaner year ahead.

The pattern was very similar for the South as a region: Contractors said they expected growth in every category. Overall, 57 percent expected bigger things, 35 percent expected 2018 to be about the same, and 8 percent expected a contraction.

Alabama's overall results were superficially similar: 53 percent said they expected a big year, 40 percent said about the same, 7 percent saw a tighter 12 months. But that masked some extreme variations in the various categories.

Translation: Alabama contractors expect to be busy in the year ahead, but in a market with some definite hot and cold spots.

According to the Associated General Contractors of America, its Alabama results were based on responses from 18 members, whose 2017 work volume ranged from less than $10 million to more than $500 million.

Of the Alabama firms, 61 percent said they planned to hire more people in 2018. At the regional and national level, about 75 percent of firms said they planned to increase their workforce.

At all levels, firms said it was hard filling key openings, particularly for craft positions, and that they expected that difficulty to continue or even get worse. Many firms said they have sweetened the pot with higher base pay, bonuses or improved benefits; more than half said they expect to spend more on training and development.

And despite the sense that the administration is business-friendly, many continue to keep a wary eye on Washington, waiting to see if tax cuts actually will stimulate the economy and if deregulation will continue.

"While workforce issues remain their top concern, many contractors are also worried about competition and the impact of decisions made in Washington on their operations," said Ken Simonson, the association's chief economist. He said 28 percent of firms listed growth in federal regulations as one of their top concerns and 24 percent said one of their concerns was a lack of new infrastructure investments.

"The administration must also deliver on its promise to boost investments in infrastructure," said Stephen E. Sandherr, the association's chief executive officer. "And Congress and the Trump administration need to take steps to address chronic workforce shortages by passing a new Perkins Act and making it easier for local officials to set up construction-focused career and technical education programs."

Sandherr said the association would continue to lobby for "new federal, state and local measures to rebuild the pipeline for recruiting and preparing the next generation of construction professionals," and would work with administration officials "to help identify regulations that can be improved and others that can be removed."